Spectators lined the hill from early morning. Rampage is the only event where spectators have as much freedom as this, crowd control is pretty tough on an open hillside...
Helicopters, early morning light and insane ridge lines. Rampage is one of a kind.
First man down Brett Rheeder threw a barspin off the very first drop and ate shit. He still rode the rest of his run exactly the same, but unfortunately piled himself into the dirt again on the landing of this drop.
I'm not 100% sure what "steez" is, but I'm fairly sure this is it.
The day didn't go well for Brandon Semenuk. He nailed the technical top half of his line both runs, but failed to clean the bottom section at each attempt.
Logan Bingelli stepped up today bigtime. A fast flowy run with some tricks thrown in for good measure put him in third place, and impressive result for the Utah native.
Rampage 2012 was all about one man in the end. Kurt Sorge did enough in his first run to win the competition, and still put in an even better second run to seal the deal.
Andreu Lacondeguy contemplates how to improve on his second run.
Nico Vink was not looking forward to riding the skinny ridge out of the start gate, but he put this behind him and put down a solid run.
Tyler McCaul went huge on this drop and the rest of his run, and many thought his points haul should have been higher. Controversy abounds in judged events...
Veteran photographer Sterling Lorence knows Cam McCaul well and was calling a super-man seatgrab over the canyon gap. Things didn't go quite to plan for Cam though and he failed to trick the line on either run.
French rider Antoine Bizet is a new face in the freeride world, but he showed he has the skill and balls to compete at the highest level. Four backflips in one run and some impressive technical drops put him in second place. A massive result for him.
Martin Soderstrom was in contention for the FMB overall title, and after Semenuk failed to stick his first run the pressure was on. A good run with a small mistake wasn't enough for Soderstrom to take home the bacon.
Kurt Sorge's second run was impressive. Being well out in the lead after his first run, he still felt he had more in the bag and went even bigger and smoother second time round.
This dialled backflip drop is the same place that Semenuk over-rotated and crashed out. Sorge dealt with the pressure and was flawless.
Kurt Sorge, 2012 Redbull Rampage winner. Later that night he was having trouble standing up, let alone holding a bike above his head. Freeride parties are messy to say the least.
Semenuk looks on and ponders what might have been. Overall FMB tour winner is no small feat considering his lacklustre points in the two biggest events of the year.
Great fotos!Thank you
OMG!!!!! some amaaaaazin shots – that one of McCaul over the gap wow
Amazing photos…
Also – love the new(ish) photo viewer, but hate that I lose the captions when I go full screen. (Google Chrome, fwiw)
Damn… great angle, I wish I had shot this from the bottom.
“steez” is a silly combo of “style with ease”